Thread: How well do GoLights hold up to abuse?

I'm thinking about putting a GOLight on my pickup. I could use one for hunting, off-roading, and SHTF. The base model is pretty inexpensive and less troublesome than installing a Unity on the A-pillar. My concern is I've never held one in my hand, and I'm wondering how it will hold up to riding on the top of the truck in the wind, in the ice, heat, and being scraped by the occasional branch and whatnot.

I know Alaska Troopers use them, so they can't be complete garbage, but was wondering if any of you had experience with them.

I used to work in the garage that had at least one on every vehicle. They hold up good as long as you don't hit things too big. We always leave the lens facing the rear when not in use also to keep rocks from cracking the lens.

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They are used by the thousands on military vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. We've had four in service on fire vehicles for nearly five years. For the price, you can't beat it.

One of my main concerns would be ice building up and then inadvertently damaging it (stripping the gears out) if I were to try to use it. My truck sits outside and I would probably use it mostly in the winter anyway (the light).

If you are really that worried about snow and ice, here is an idea. Take a piece of tarp, and sew magnets in the seams, and just cover the golight with it. Before driving, remove the tarp, and since it is flexible, all the ice will pop right off. I know some people here who cover their windshields with a piece of tarp to prevent snow/ice buildup, and it works well for them.

GOLIGHT Spotlights - Golight Radioray - Golight Stryker - Golight remote lights - MagnaLight

A local power company uses them, they turn them backwards also. Im sure if they had a problem with the elements they would go to something else.

Originally Posted by Hoser

A local power company uses them, they turn them backwards also. Im sure if they had a problem with the elements they would go to something else.

I wonder how they compare to a Visibeam.

Hydro companies up here have them by the barrel full. Some even have a protective dome for them, I think its a factory option.

The ones we have used are great and no problems to this point. I have had them in use for about 3 years now.

For as far as abuse, Candian pacific Railroad police use them. Alot of off roading.
and Comcast cable uses them too, but they put a large clear dome over the top.

Originally Posted by kadetklapp

I wonder how they compare to a Visibeam.

Cant tell ya that, there seem to be more around than the visibeam. But that might be where the price difference comes into play.

Originally Posted by Hoser

Cant tell ya that, there seem to be more around than the visibeam. But that might be where the price difference comes into play.

I use a Visibeam for my school security job. I've have had two of them first one works when it wants to.
The 2nd one works perfect (mag mount) the first one I have had about a year longer than the other, but both are over 8 years old.
The only difference I noticed between the go light and the visiabeam is that the visibeam can go almost 90 degrees up. the go light goes not nearly as far.

Around me there are alot of Visibeams in use, Detroit edison, Consumers Energy use them alot. But both also use Go lights.

I have one on my truck, mag base, and the local school board has them on security vehicles. Dominion Power has them on their line trucks, and I have seen two mounted on supervisor vehicles. Mine has been flawless...

Whatever you do don't use the suction cup base. I had one fly off of my roof because it didn't hold properly.

I'm still waiting for GoLight to enter the 21st century and use LEDs before buying one. With the technology advancing so rapidly there's no excuse for lighting to be anything but LED these days.

Originally Posted by Solvarex

I'm still waiting for GoLight to enter the 21st century and use LEDs before buying one. With the technology advancing so rapidly there's no excuse for lighting to be anything but LED these days.

It is in the works from what I heard from my rep. So far I know vision X makes a retrofit kit for them too.

If you want LED Golights or HID Golights then check out magnalight. Fair warning though, they are not cheap upgrades.
LED Golights - MagnaLight

Visibeams SUCK! Yes I shouted! All of our trucks have them and all 40+ have been nothing but a pain in the @$$! Run, Don't walk, Run Away from the visicrappybeams.

Thanks guys. I will stay way from the visibeams. Too expensive anyway. The GoLight I want has a permanent mount shoe and it slides in and out of the base I think. No suction cup for me. It wouldn't last a day.

First picture below is of an install I did with some go lights, one below it, guys got a little carried away with lights for seeing the road, not that I can blame them looking for IEDS in the dark in Iraq is hard enough. The go lights withstood a lot over there, minus the IEDS. I loved them, if I still had my truck I would have a go light in a heartbeat on it.

NYS DOT has them on all of their plow trucks. I can't say I've ever seen one in use but they must hold up well because NY state agencies are generally not afraid to spend money to buy the best.

Hmm, I wonder how they would look replacing the middle pod of a vector/vision.

Originally Posted by Ipuvaepe

Hmm, I wonder how they would look replacing the middle pod of a vector/vision.

Not good, much like the hack job Opticom installs we used to see...

The Golight sits probably a good 2" higher than the Vector dome, it would be fine until you went more than 90 degrees side to side, then it would run in to the side of pods 3 & 5.

We have a Golight on our rescue. I used the base and screwed it to the roof, I then took the controller apart and ran the control wire through the roof as well. I then zip tied it to our Jotto Desk console so it couldn't get "lost" in the truck. We have had the truck 2 years now. I keep the lense to the front for ease of use, but the truck has been down some rough roads and not had a problem. We got ours through Sirennet on special at the time. I'll try to dig up pictures of it.

Jordan,TCFD

One word of warning with the Radio Ray (the wireless remote version) - the remotes are not coded correctly so you may inadvertently turn on or off a nearby unit. We had the front protective cover thingy melt pretty badly on one a couple months ago because that vehicle rolled up on scene after another Golight user was already there, when he got ready to take off, the first unit turned his Golight off which subsequently turned the other Golight on...

All you have to do on an installer standpoint is pull the cover of the remote and change the dip switches to different on each one.

Originally Posted by NotNormalEnterprisesLLC

All you have to do on an installer standpoint is pull the cover of the remote and change the dip switches to different on each one.

Brilliant... Will have to take a look at those this week during fleet maintenance - we have about 30 of these deployed fleetwide, I'll take a look at the possible DIP switch combinations to avoid duplicates. Unfortunately these were upfitted by Brand FX/ARI over the course of 7 years so its entirely possible there are several setup to the defaults.

When I worked in a fleet we had over 100 all set up to default. It was funny hitting a remote and watching 20 trucks light up lol.

Here is a remote I have handy

Originally Posted by STT Installer

Brilliant... Will have to take a look at those this week during fleet maintenance - we have about 30 of these deployed fleetwide, I'll take a look at the possible DIP switch combinations to avoid duplicates. Unfortunately these were upfitted by Brand FX/ARI over the course of 7 years so its entirely possible there are several setup to the defaults.

7 switches on the DIP. 2^7 = 128, so you'll have 128 unique combinations. Unless of course it's a trinary DIP instead of binary DIP, in which case 3^7 = 2187 combinations.